Friday, May 22, 2009

25 years after the civil war first erupted in then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), we see:

The war is over now, hopefully.

The Tamil Liberation Army (LTTE) has been humiliatingly defeated.

The current government has vowed to protect all Tamilians affected by the long drawn out war, and promises to give it autonomy.

But as yet, the UN and International Red Cross (ICRC) are still being denied access to affected areas.

And now, the news from the grassroots, of the ordinary people directly hit by the war, is now emerging. Marina Mahthir's blog carries this story.

Read the comments too, some of them give hint to exactly when/who was responsible to sow the seeds for such a war in the years ahead.

While limited, Wikipedia has some relevant information on the issue. It would be good to counter check with other relevant, more accurate sources too.

At the end of the day, the question remains: "Was it worth it?" The official death count is 80,000. Add to it the hundreds of thousands displaced, loss of homes, incomes, assets, etc. the total human cost is devastating.